New Paltz transplant survivor reaches out

NEW PALTZ — When he heard the news, Butch Dener called Orange County Executive Ed Diana's office first thing Thursday morning.

BY JEREMIAH HORRIGAN

NEW PALTZ — When he heard the news, Butch Dener called Orange County Executive Ed Diana's office first thing Thursday morning.

Diana announced on Wednesday that he was suffering from a liver disease that will require a transplant.

Dener's been there before. The chairman of the Town of New Paltz's Republican Party, Dener waited eight years for the liver transplant that saved his life from the ravages of hepatitis C. Diana is suffering from nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

Dener said he wanted Diana to know that he wasn't alone, that a support community exists and that Dener stood ready to help him any way he could.

Dener said he couldn't resist the urge to make a comic connection between himself and Diana:

"I said we were both Republicans, party leaders, and we need as many of those as we can get."

But his more serious and deepest wish was that Diana won't have to wait as long or endure as much as he did before receiving a new liver six years ago.

Dener said the best thing anyone could do for Diana would be to become an organ donor.

"You can't generalize about what's to come," he said. "Every case is different. But I'm here to say that whatever you want to attribute it to — the hand of God, fate, destiny — miracles happen — I'm living proof."